


never let 'em know your next move

by MirrorImage003



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Sakura, F/M, Fluff, Humor, No Uchiha Massacre, allusion to sexual assault, itachi doesn't know how to flirt, itachi is smitten, itasaku - Freeform, minor strength kink, non-massacre, sake is consumed, sakura is sassy af, some gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-09-27 18:23:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20412283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MirrorImage003/pseuds/MirrorImage003
Summary: six times itachi is surprised by sakura, and the one time he's surprised by his mother.





	never let 'em know your next move

**Author's Note:**

> I always see Itasaku fics where Itachi is this smooth, debonair lady killer, and Sakura is a shy, naive fly in his web. I don't particularly dislike those fics, but I did want to see something different. So here is my attempt at creating a very infatuated Itachi with a very savvy Sakura.
> 
> Disclaimer: I didn't really try to plan out all the details of a non-mass universe, so if there are inconsistencies, I apologize, but also, it's a oneshot. What did you expect lol.

The first time she shows up at the ANBU training grounds, she’s accompanied by the Gondaime.

“Alright, you little shits. Sakura here is gonna be sitting in on some of your practices to heal any of your injuries. If you need anything, go to her. If it’s really fucked up, she’ll send you to me. But just be warned, my apprentice is much more sympathetic than I am, so don’t get fucked up unless you absolutely have to.” 

The robust Hokage then proceeds to heartily slap the cherry-haired chunin on her admittedly frail looking back before poofing out of existence. 

The girl almost seems to shrink under the weight of the thirty-four masked stares directed at her, before she blinks hard and straightens her spine. 

“Hello. I’m Haruno Sakura. Please let me know if and when you need healing.” Her voice is surprisingly low for her appearance, and Itachi merely watches as she sets down a medic bag at the edge of the grounds and sits down to observe.

The ninjas almost immediately return to their rigorous training, the small medic forgotten.

“Oi,” Shisui lands gracefully next to him and throws out a lightning fast punch, which Itachi reflexively dodges. “Isn’t that Sasuke-chan’s fiesty teammate?”

He grunts his reply as he flickers behind his cousin to deliver a swift kick to his legs. Shisui only rolls with the motion, absorbing its impact and spinning on his heel to block Itachi’s jabs. Itachi’s own eyes narrow as he watches Shisui’s flick repeatedly towards the medic. 

He himself had made the connection almost as soon as he’d noticed her entering the grounds, but as he hasn’t really seen the girl since Sasuke’s genin days, he harbors no opinions on her temperament. 

“She’s kinda cute, isn’t she?” Shisui neatly ducks under Itachi’s outstretched leg, focus still on the little kunoichi. “Maybe I should talk to her.”

“Maybe,” Itachi’s eyes flicker red for half of a second before he sweeps Shisui’s feet out from under him and pins him to the floor with a kunai at his neck, “you should pay attention.”

His cousin merely meets his gaze squarely, and from the curve of his eyes, Itachi can tell he’s grinning without even needing to look under the mask. 

“Or, I could just do this.” 

Shisui shoves up so fast that Itachi has no time to remove his kunai, and the blade slices evenly against his cousin’s pale throat. It’s a shallow cut, strategically made so as not to inhibit his breathing or cause any true distress. Itachi feels his irritation skyrocket all the same. 

“Haruno-san!” Shisui shouts and all but kicks Itachi off of him. “Haruno-san, I think I need assistance!”

She’s there in an instant, having moved at the first call of her name. Her jewel-toned eyes are assessing and analytical with none of the panic or uncertainty that Itachi had been expecting. 

“Please lie back, ANBU-san.” Her hands are engulfed in a light green glow, and she presses them firmly to his cousin’s throat. “Was the injury caused by weapon or chakra, ANBU-san?”

Itachi answers before Shisui has the chance to make him out to be the bad guy. “Weapon based.”

She nods, pink hair (what a ridiculous color, he thinks) bouncing along the edges of her jaw. 

It is only another moment before she lifts her hands and the skin of his cousin’s throat is new and unblemished.

Shisui sits up and rubs lightly at his neck, an expectant smile gracing his bold features. “Ah, thank you, Haruno-san.”

“Of course.” She is already turning away, face neutral and eyes sharp, attention swiftly shifting to the rest of the squads.

Shisui slumps in a way that Itachi recognizes as pouting and sulkily stands back up. “She used to be a lot chattier when she was a kid. Now she’s just cold.”

“She’s not here to flirt with you.”

“Well it wouldn’t hurt anyone if she did.”

While his cousin mopes off towards the water station, he eyes the medic for a moment longer. She’s sitting back down by her bag, but rather than dozing off or busying herself with a different task, Sakura simply watches them train. Her eyes follow the forms of various ANBU as they spar, and Itachi can practically see the mental notes that she is making.

Itachi supposes he should learn to better trust his Hokage’s judgment.

\----------------------------

The first time he realizes just how grossly he’s underestimated her is when a man nearly dies on their training grounds.

She has been observing their training frequently for the last few months—though inconsistently due to her other responsibilities—and more often than not, has only been needed for small cuts, breaks, or sprains. 

Itachi himself has only required her assistance a total of two times. Once, when Hana had managed to break two of his ribs, and another time, when Shisui had cut into his left bicep with his tanto.

Today, however, is a different beast entirely.

Each squad has been practicing ninjutsu and elemental techniques, resulting in a more grandiose display of power. Sakura stands farther away than normal, sporting her newly minted jounin vest, and attempting to stay out of range of any attacks. 

It happens in the blink of an eye. 

One moment, Itachi is dousing a katon from Shisui with a stream of water, and the next, a strangled scream ripples through the air, halting them in their spots and raising the hair on their arms.

A doton jutsu went terribly wrong, and a ninja with a cracked bear mask lays in the middle of the training grounds with a massive chunk of earth crushing him into the floor. The boulder, easily three feet taller than Itachi himself and several times wider, completely obscures the lower half of his body from sight.

A gory circle of blood stains the grass around the ninja, proof that whatever damage he sustained is extensive and life-threatening.

Before Itachi, or any other ANBU, can even begin to form a plan to remove him from underneath the boulder, Sakura is beside the man.

Itachi watches, somewhat disbelievingly, as the tiny, pink-haired medic bends down and promptly lifts the huge boulder up and over her head without even a grunt of exertion. In the space between one second and the next, she has launched it fifty feet away from the injured ninja and into the lake by the training grounds. It lands with a loud splash before disappearing underneath the waves.

Not even bothering with proper suffixes, Sakura immediately begins working. 

“Go get the Hokage. Tell her it is a level five crush injury. Be quick.” The ANBU nearest to her flickers out of sight.

She kneels by the mangled shinobi who has raised himself onto his elbows and is staring blankly at his mutilated lower body. 

“Lie back.” 

Sakura pulls gently but swiftly at the ninja’s wrist and pushes down on his shoulders until he is lying flat. The second his back touches the ground the ninja begins to hyperventilate and flail his upper body. He fights against her firm hand, pulling chakra into his tight fists and swinging them wildly at whatever parts of her he can reach. She leans back, one hand splayed across his collarbone, pinning him to the floor. 

“Uchiha-san.”

Her voice does not waver, and though she cannot have known which ANBU are Uchihas and which are not, her voice is full of authority and demands a response. Itachi steps to her side.

“He’s going into shock. Please—”

He has his Sharingan activated and is leaning over the ninja before she can even finish her thought.

The next few minutes are tense as she works in silence. With the ANBU unconscious, she begins assessing the bloody pulp that had been his legs, brow taut and hands glowing. None of them dare to interrupt her or distract her, though several have to look away as she begins to methodically piece his pulverized femurs back together. 

By the time the Gondaime arrives on the scene, Sakura has already closed his main arteries and located all the broken bits and pieces of his legs. With the two women working together, his legs are reconstructed within the next half hour. A few medics come to transport him carefully to the hospital for observation and rehabilitation, but his prognosis is a mostly positive one, if the Hokage’s satisfied grimace is any sign.

“Alright. Back to training, all of you.” She turns to her bloodied and sweat-slicked apprentice with a proud smile. Her hand, still covered in drying blood, comes to rest on the shorter woman’s head. “You did good, Sakura. Any later action, and he would be out of commission—possibly dead.”

With a wrinkle of her nose, Sakura knocks her mentor’s hand off her head, but there’s a smile lighting up her face all the same. “Gross, Shishou.”

The Hokage snickers before huffing. “I suppose I should get back to work. Shizune’s gonna be pissed when she hears that she missed out on all the drama.”

With one last grin at her student, she takes to the roofs, making her way back to the Hokage tower. Her private squad of ANBU security follow swiftly after her.

The rest of the ANBU begin to regroup, gathering themselves—albeit more cautiously—to resume their formations. Life-threatening injuries are, after all, a regular part of their occupation.

As he turns to find Genma, Shisui, and Hana, Itachi meets Sakura’s bright eyes.

After a moment of what looks like hesitation, she makes her way towards him. 

“Uchiha-san.”

He merely nods. It occurs to him suddenly that she just might know who he is after having spent all this time watching him train. 

She surprises him then with a quick and respectful bow. “Thank you, for your help. It would have been impossible to heal him if you hadn’t stepped in.”

Itachi feels his own eyes widen in surprise. “Haruno-san, if anyone should be shown gratitude, it is you.”

Her smile is warm but professional. “I was just doing my job.”

He is about to quip that he too was merely fulfilling his duty, when Shisui’s arm slings heavily over his shoulders, staggering his footing.

“Sakura-chan, that was some pretty fancy work you did there. You sure you’re still an apprentice?”

Her entire countenance changes almost immediately, eyes narrowing and lips pursing. “I’m pretty sure, _Wolf-san_.”

The emphasis she places on his title and her skeptical attitude confirm what Itachi had already suspected. Sakura probably knew at least half of the identities of the ANBU members by now. He supposes it was really only a matter of time. 

Shisui chuckles and puts his hands up in surrender. “Alright, alright. I get it, you’re tired from repeatedly saving our asses. I’ll leave you alone.” 

She opens her mouth to no doubt sass him back, but he’s already shunshinning away. 

Sakura shakes her head, and Itachi notes that the layer of hair underneath her top layer is scattered with wine-red strands rather than just light pink.

“Moron.”

Itachi smirks underneath his mask, but she must have taken the slight quirk of his head as a negative one, for she backtracks quickly with a flush tinting her cheeks.

“Ah, I didn’t—I wasn’t being serious. I mean, he is a moron, but in the best possible way.”

And because his mask maintains a safe secrecy, Itachi allows his smirk to become a full-blown grin. “Don’t worry, Sakura-san. He is most definitely a moron.”

With that, Itachi adjusts his wrist-guards, locates his team, and joins their spar. 

And if he peeks out of the corner of his eye to see if she is still watching him, it is of no consequence. The mask hides that too.

\------------------------------

The first time he sees her outside of the ANBU training grounds, Itachi is standing in as one of the Hokage’s personal guards. The Hyuuga he is temporarily replacing is absent on a classified mission, and Itachi was called upon as one of the Hokage’s most reliable ninjas to fill in.

Tsunade is scanning through some legal documents from Sunagakure when her door is quite literally kicked open.

Itachi, as well as the three other ANBU guards, are immediately on alert. 

“Shishou!”

Their Hokage hardly even spares her apprentice a glance. “Hm?”

Sakura stomps aggressively up to her desk and slaps a scroll in front of her mentor. Itachi does not think he is imagining the way the room trembles with the impact. Not for the first time, he is reminded of the fact that Sakura took down an Akatsuki member when she was merely a young teenager.

Tsunade only flicks an impassioned look to the scroll and then to her student. “Yes?”

“You promised.”

“I did.”

“Then why are you sending her out again.”

Itachi watches as his Hokage swipes a tired hand over her face and reaches for the bottle stashed underneath her desk. 

“Sakura, my hands were tied. I didn’t have a choice.”

“Bullshit.” Her tone is hard, emerald eyes nearly sparking with her anger. 

Itachi bristles the slightest bit under her attack. Despite the two women’s close relationship and familiarity, it is still considered dangerous to address a Hokage in such a manner. The other guards do not move a muscle, but their discomfort is palpable.

“The mission needed her skillset, Sakura. I’m not lying to you when I say there wasn’t anyone else.” Tsunade seems unfazed by the unorthodox language, and Itachi and the other guards minutely relax.

The pink-haired medic-nin stares hard at her teacher for another moment before setting her jaw and resting her hands on the desk. “There are other Yamanaka.”

“Not any who could finish the job.”

“_Bullshit_. There’s Yamanaka Eiko. Yamanaka Ikuko. Yamanaka Chiyoko. Yamanka—”

“And do any of them have a Body Switch Technique as powerful as Ino’s?” It’s the authoritative voice of the Hokage, leaving no room for argument.

Sakura sucks in air through her teeth and glares at the space above Tsunade’s head. 

“Answer me, Haruno. Do any of them have a Body Switch Technique as—”

“No.” 

There is a tense moment of silence—in which Itachi remains stone still—before Sakura lets out a long breath and collapses into the chair opposite of Tsunade. 

“No, Shishou. Ino’s is the most effective.”

Tsunade grunts and then reaches into her desk drawer to pull out two sake cups. She fills them with a practiced hand and hands one to Sakura, who immediately downs it in one go.

“For what it’s worth, I am sorry, Sakura.” The blonde swallows hers without blinking an eye. “I wouldn’t have broken my promise if I hadn’t thought it necessary.”

“I know. It’s just…frustrating.”

They drink their next cup together. 

“How bad was it the last time?” 

Sakura slumps further into her chair and stares unseeingly at the high ceiling. “Bad. I had to sleep in her room with her for a month. She couldn’t handle physical touch though, even from me, so I slept on the floor. I didn’t,” she falters here before clearing her throat, “I didn’t know whether she’d come back.”

Tsunade shoves the Suna documents to the side and refills their glasses. “But she did.”

Sakura blindly feels for the cup, sloshing a few drops onto the floor. “She’s not the same, though. Every time she completes one of these missions, it’s like I can see the parts of her that are locking themselves up inside.”

She coughs profusely this time after she swallows the sake, and Hokage and ANBU alike pretend not to notice the tears that slip unbidden down her cheeks. 

Once she stifles the last few coughs and swipes a palm over her tears, she confesses in the smallest voice Itachi has ever heard from her: “I’m scared I won’t be able to help her this time.”

The Hokage is silent for a moment, eyes soft and understanding in a rare display of vulnerability. She stands and crosses to the chair beside Sakura’s, sitting down heavily. She takes their cups and puts them to the side, opting to just pass the half-full bottle back and forth. 

“Ino is strong, Sakura. And she’s not going alone for this one.”

Sakura, neck and ears beginning to flush from the alcohol, turns to stare abruptly at her mentor. “She’s not?”

“No. I’ll modify the mission. I’ll send Shikamaru with her.”

Fresh tears begin to well up in her green eyes and she reaches out to grasp at the edge of Tsunade’s robes. “Thank you, Shishou.”

“She’s still going to have to complete the mission, Sakura,” the Hokage warns. “I can’t change all of the guidelines, especially since it is a highly sensitive mission.”

“But if Shika’s there, it’ll be easier. It will be. Thank you.”

Tsunade lifts her hand to ruffle her apprentice’s hair. “Yeah yeah. Alright, that was too much arguing and emotional baggage for me. Let’s get plastered before Shizune yells at us.”

Shizune does indeed yell at them, but only an hour and a half later, long after the sun has set and well after the two medic-nins have polished off another sake bottle in addition to the first. 

The brown-haired woman hefts her mentor’s arm over her shoulder, a stern crease settling between her brows. “I can’t believe you got her drunk _again_. You _know_ she already takes after you in everything else—and now you’re teaching her your terrible drinking habits? I swear, one of these days I’m going to—”

“Lay off, Shizune, she’s fine.” Tsunade laughs and then hiccups, letting her first apprentice cart her out of the office. 

Shizune merely rolls her eyes and stops to look around exasperatedly. Her dark eyes land on Itachi, who has not moved since the beginning of the ordeal.

“Will you take Sakura home? She doesn’t live very far.”

Itachi nods and makes his way to the sleeping kunoichi. He slips a careful arm under her neck and his other under her knees, lifting slowly as to not jostle her. “Her apartment?”

Shizune smiles with relief. “The apartment building is right across from that new taiyaki stand, and her apartment is 206. She should have her key on her somewhere. Thank you so much.”

With that, she begins to drag the half-conscious Hokage towards the stairs, continuing her lecture where she left off. The other three ANBU detail dutifully follow her. 

Itachi adjusts his brother’s teammate in his arms and decides on using the window. The night air is crisp, and he breathes it in greedily, tired of the mask stifling his most basic function.

Sakura, however, hums lightly in discomfort, moving a little in his arms to avoid the cold.

In an attempt to reach her apartment faster, and therefore relieve the chills undoubtedly sweeping through her body, Itachi takes to the roofs. 

Shizune was not lying when she promised him that her apartment was close. All the same, he slows his normally rapid pace to a smoother gait, unwilling to disturb the peaceful kunoichi.

Despite his best efforts, Itachi blinks in surprise when her groggy voice cuts through the silence of the night.

“Well, this is embarrassing.”

He spares her a glance, briefly meeting her sleepy look. “Not at all, Haruno-san.”

She groans and relaxes, forehead lolling against his collarbone. Her warm breath, smelling of sake, pools against the hollow of his throat. Itachi does not swallow nervously, but it is a very near thing.

“I’m sure I’ll find the time to be mortified about this tomorrow,” she burrows a little closer into his chest, “but right now, it’s fucking freezing, and you’re really warm.”  
Her unexpected confession startles a laugh out of him. “I’m glad I can be of service, Sakura-san.”

She suddenly jerks her head up, squinting at him through his mask. “Okay, I know I’m not really supposed to ask you guys, but I just really need to be right about this. This is Uchiha Itachi, right?”

He does not answer right away, amused in spite of himself. “What makes you think that?”

She scoffs. “Oh, I don’t know. It might be the fact that I have a teammate whose life mission is to make sure everyone in the whole damn village knows that his big brother is the best shinobi to ever exist. Or it could be the obnoxiously talkative Uchiha that’s basically attached to your hip at all times. Or—and this is just a wild guess over here—maybe it’s the absurdly shiny ponytail?”

And then he really cannot help the chuckle that humidifies the space between his mask and his lips.

“Ah, you are much too observant for me to deceive, Sakura-san.”

The victorious smile she directs at him makes him glad that his Sharingan is already activated, ensuring that the image will remain clear in his mind despite the dimness of the night.

He spots her apartment building and jumps noiselessly onto the second floor. 

Sakura wiggles a bit in his arms, pushing herself further up. “Thank you, Uchiha-san, I can make it from here.”

Itachi dismisses her attempts to free herself and merely keeps track of the apartment numbers as he passes.

“Now, I wouldn’t want you to freeze out here without my warmth, would I?”

She splutters, blinking owlishly at him, before surrendering her struggles and settling back against him. A half-smile quirks her lips as they arrive at her apartment.

“Sasuke never told me you were such a jokester.”

"I would imagine that Sasuke probably doesn’t tell you a lot of things about me.” He finally sets her down, watching as she shakes out her legs.

She fumbles around in the pocket of her medic-skirt before pulling out a set of keys and carding through them to find the correct one. “I don’t know about that. Your badassery is one of his favorite topics. He’s been pretty jealous that I get to sit in on so many of your ANBU practices, but he’s been consoling himself with the fact that he thinks I don’t know which one you are.”

Her fingers jam the key into the side of the lock, missing on her first few tries. She mutters a curse under her breath before finally slotting it successfully into the keyhole. It wrangles another smile from Itachi. 

“Well, then I will not be the one to inform him of your accurate deductions.”

She shoots him a grin over her shoulder and steps into the open door. Pausing in the doorframe, Sakura turns to face him, cheeks still highlighted rosy-pink from her intoxication.

“Really, though. Thank you, Uchiha-san.”

He hesitates for just a moment before making up his mind and stepping half an inch closer.

“You are a good friend, Sakura-san. I’m grateful that my brother has someone as capable and caring as you for a teammate.”

She blinks slowly at him, his words slowly registering in her sharp mind. Itachi smiles and pokes her forehead affectionately, giving into his long-time urge to use her Yin seal as a bullseye. 

“Goodnight, Sakura-san.”

\-------------------------------------

Weeks turn into months, and Itachi grows used to being surprised by the Hokage’s apprentice. 

Whether it is her sassy wit or her magic, healing hands, he finds his eyes drawn to her more and more often.

She has become somewhat of a constant in his life, and while they are not precisely close, they do begin to spend a decent amount of time together with either his cousin and brother, Team 7, or his ANBU squad. Confidently, he considers them friends. 

It is nearly an entire year and a half after their first acquaintance when he, for the first time, is met with an unpleasant surprise regarding the kunoichi. 

He is in the midst of organizing his room after returning from a particularly long and grueling mission when Sasuke knocks on his door. 

“I’m going to visit Sakura in the hospital. Do you need anything from town?” There is a weary note in his tone that picks at Itachi’s intuition.

“A whetstone, if you have time. I lost mine on the mission.” He gathers the freshly folded laundry in his arms and begins to replace them in his closet. “You should not be disturbing Sakura-san when she is working.”

Sasuke gives him an odd look, the skin around his tired eyes tightening. “No, I’m visiting her _in_ the hospital.”

Itachi freezes where he stands and swivels to stare at his brother. 

“Nobody…nobody told you?”

Itachi stiffens, and he forces himself to relax the fingers of his left hand which are digging into an old pair of plain black pants. “No. You are the first person I have seen since returning from my mission.”

His brother grimaces and sighs. “Sakura went out on a solo mission while you were gone. On her way back home, a group of A-class hunter-nin cornered her. Her bounty in the Bingo Book has been steadily rising ever since Sasori. They assumed she was an easy target because she was alone. Idiots.”

Itachi attempts to appear as if he is not hanging off of his little brother’s every word, the way he truly is. 

“She eliminated all of them and managed to make it home. But her chakra was completely depleted, and she wasn’t in good shape.”

“Her injuries?” It comes out more strained than he’d hoped it would, and Sasuke eyes him carefully.

“Internal bleeding, punctured lung, and a shattered left humerus. Minor cuts and bruises. She’d already healed the more severe external wounds herself, and Tsunade-sama and Shizune-san worked on her for hours until they were sure she would make a full recovery. She’s been confined to bed rest for the next week though.”

Later, he will have time to wonder at the immediate and overwhelming relief that nearly knocks him flat. 

“I will go with you, give me a moment, Otouto.” 

He sets down the rest of his laundry and swiftly changes out of his lounge pants into a pair of jounin pants, ignoring Sasuke’s heavy gaze.

When they arrive at her hospital room, she is already sitting up in her bed, hunched over several large tomes and files. Her shorn hair is gathered into a messy ponytail that shows off the smooth skin of her neck, hospital gown hanging loosely to her shoulders.

She looks up when they walk in, a warm smile lighting up her now-unblemished face.

“Sasuke-kun, Itachi-san.” She sets down the entirely too-thick textbook in her hands and gives them her full attention.

Sasuke puts down a bag on the table by her bed and drags a chair to sit next to her. He wordlessly pulls a plate, a knife, and a ripe apple from the bag and begins to peel at the bright skin.

Itachi watches as Sakura’s eyes soften with affection and Sasuke studiously ignores her. He pulls up a seat beside his brother.

“You just missed Kakashi-sensei and Sai. They just got back from retrieving the bodies.” 

Sasuke hands her a wedge of the apple. She accepts and takes a crunchy bite. 

“Did they determine which village sent them?” His little brother’s tone is deceptively light, but he cuts into the apple with more force than necessary.

Sakura rolls her eyes. “I already told you that they looked and fought like missing-nin, Sasuke. And I was right.”

Sasuke grunts, a displeased look scrunching his face. She reaches over and digs the tip of her pointer finger into her teammate’s cheek. 

“That’s a good thing, you dork. Now we know we aren’t facing some kind of declaration of war from another village.”

Itachi cuts his brother off before he can retort with something rude. “Are you feeling better, Sakura-san?”

She turns her attention to him, and he ignores the pleasant thrum in his chest when her wide eyes crinkle at him.

“Much better. Really, I probably don’t need bed rest for more than another day, but I figured I’d hunker down and show my numbskull teammates how to be a good patient.” She throws a glare at Sasuke who feigns ignorance. “How did your mission go, Itachi-san?”

“Well. Thank you for asking.” The advanced classification of the mission prevents him from further answering her question, but she merely smiles knowingly.

“The training grounds felt rather empty without you and your squad here the last few weeks. Especially without Wolf-san’s constant chattering.” She grins at him and he allows himself a small smile. 

“You may have missed him, but after being stuck with him for a prolonged amount of time without you as a convenient buffer, I can’t say that I particularly mourn his absence.” He only half means it, but it wins a bright laugh from her, so he considers it a success.

Sasuke shoots him a piercing look, but Itachi keeps his gaze trained on the beaming medic-nin.

She eyes him with mirth. “I’m not used to putting facial expressions to your words. Now I know that you’re just as much of a comedian as your cousin.”

“I hope that’s to your liking, Sakura-san.” 

Sasuke is now not even attempting to hide his dumbfounded staring.

“Anytime I get a chance to see you behind the mask is a privilege, Itachi-san.”

Sasuke coughs and stands, setting the plate—now full of sliced apples—onto the table with a clang. “I’m going to get you some more water. Be right back.”

Sakura stares after his stiff back, tracking him until he’s disappeared around the corner. “He does know that we have nurses for that, doesn’t he?”

Itachi hums, perfectly aware that his brother has now caught on to this odd infatuation his prodigious older brother has developed for his teammate. The barest hint of a smirk lifts his lips.

“I’m sure Sasuke is merely trying to make sure you are as comfortable as possible.” 

A more sober look fixes her unique features. “Yeah, he and Naruto both were sort of in hysterics when they heard what happened. I know they worry, but it would be nice if they acted like they had at least a little faith in me.”

Itachi studies her quietly before folding his hands neatly in his lap. “You are an important person to the both of them, Sakura-san. It only makes sense that they would be disturbed by a report of your ill health.” 

He carefully does not include himself in his explanation, despite his own moment of panic upon receiving the news of her attack earlier in the day. 

Her dark pink brows draw in, forming a crinkle on her forehead. “I know. And I would be just as upset if I had seen them in such a state… But I’ve seen the way they are with each other—when one of them gets hurt—it’s like they just assume that the other person will be fine, that they’re strong enough to survive something like that. With me…they act like everything is fatal.”

He contemplates that for a moment, understanding her unspoken yearning to be considered an equal. 

“Sakura,” the honorific will no longer roll off his tongue and he hopes that does not offend her, “You also must understand that there is a unique risk attributed with you getting injured. The reason they acknowledge the pain of others as unsubstantial is precisely because of their confidence in you and your abilities. If one of them is hurt, they have no doubt that you will be capable of fixing them. However, if you yourself are injured, the only medic equal to your level of healing is the Hokage herself. The chances of losing you due to their own—and everyone else’s—inadequate healing abilities is far higher than their chances of losing anyone else while you are present. If anything, your remarkable talents are the sole reason they are even able to jump headfirst into the extreme levels of danger they frequently find themselves in.”

She stares at him almost blankly, plump lips parted in shock. He patiently meets her gaze and hopes that he has not said too much. The embarrassment he would experience at having outed himself to the very object of his interest would be parallel to almost nothing else.

After almost an entire minute of silence has passed, her mouth widens in a slow grin. 

“Are you saying that I’m their security blanket?”

He blinks, and then chuckles lowly. In his amusement, he just misses the way her pupils dilate at the sound. “I suppose you could say that, yes.”

“You should laugh more, Itachi.” 

He does not miss the lack of a suffix, and a large part of him stretches out like a satisfied cat at the sound of his bare name on her lips. Outwardly, he only smiles.

“Is that an order, Haruno-sama?”

Her own laughter fills him with a specific brand of warmth that he’s beginning to grow addicted to. 

“It’s whatever you would like it to be, Itachi-_kun_.” 

That, he thinks, is a very dangerous offer.

\--------------------------

The first time Itachi finds himself angry with the pink-haired kunoichi, he begrudgingly must admit that at least half of the anger is self-directed.

It is by accident that he stumbles across his brother’s teammate and the Hyuuga swimming together in the lake on Training Ground 5 on his way home from a mission debriefing.

He nearly loses control of his tightly-reined killing intent when he sees them. 

His devil-red eyes, hidden behind his tiger mask, track Neji as he stands across from Sakura, almost waist-deep in the water. The lavender-eyed jounin is shirtless with his long brown hair pulled up into a messy bun. Sakura herself wears only her tight, navy blue athletic bindings, toned stomach and arms bared to the public.

A low pressure begins to coil at the back of his head when the Hyuuga gently reaches out to hold Sakura’s wrists above the water. The boy tugs a little until she steps another foot closer and lifts their hands until they are palm to palm.

Itachi is not typically a jealous person.

In the one past romantic relationship he did have (it was an adolescent thing, a fleeting thing that he thinks of fondly but without regret), Itachi had never once been overly-possessive of Izumi. If she went out to lunch with friends or her teammates, he spared no energy in being upset that her attention was elsewhere. Even after their amicable breakup, he had not been filled with envy or rage when he had seen her holding hands with a civilian.

And with his little brother and cousin—though not a romantic context—he covets the time they spend together, but never presumes to hold some kind of leash on their engagements. Logically, he knows that he does not own them or Sakura, and that to become obsessive over their time and attention is an unhealthy quality sure to weaken the relationship. 

So it comes as more of a surprise to himself than anyone else when his blood begins to pump viciously through his veins and his eyes spin from obsidian to red.

He manages to restrain himself just long enough to see the Hyuuga duck his head and lean the slightest bit closer to the oblivious-looking medic before he is vaulting from the tree he has been perched on and landing on the water beside them.

The second his uniformed figure hits the surface, the two jounin break apart.

Neji almost immediately has his Byakugan activated and Sakura’s fists are fuzzy around the edges with chakra. Once they register his ANBU uniform, they relax.

“ANBU-san.” The Hyuuga’s voice is deep and tinged with curiosity. “How can we help you?”

Itachi can feel Sakura’s eyes boring into his mask, and he belatedly realizes that despite his notorious ability to strategize battle plans on the spot, his genius mind is choosing this exact moment to fail him. 

“These training grounds are needed for an ANBU tactics meeting. The Hokage has sent me to clear them.”

Neji nods with curt understanding, but Sakura’s eyes narrow in skepticism. Itachi tries not to fidget under the weight of her stare. 

“Hai. Give us a minute and we will relocate.” The Hyuuga takes three steps towards the shore before halting and turning to lift a questioning brow at Sakura. She waves him along and he shrugs, wading farther away.

There’s a confrontational set to her shoulders when she turns to face him fully. Somehow, the fact that he is on higher ground (or, more accurately, higher water) does not lessen the force of her stare.

“The _Hokage_ sent you, huh, Tiger-_kun_?”

He refuses to acknowledge the slight error. Shikaku Nara is currently the head of ANBU, meaning that if they truly did need these grounds for some reason or other, Nara-sama would have been the one to oversee the details of the meeting, not the Hokage. 

He knows this. Sakura knows this. But apparently it was convincing enough for the Hyuuga to stoically bow out.

“That’s correct.”

She runs her tongue along her upper teeth, one eyebrow arching high on her forehead. He holds his ground. If he’s going to be a dirty liar, he might as well commit to it.

Before she can question his white lie any further, he straightens and says, “I apologize for interrupting your date, but I’m sure there are other training grounds open.”

It was too much to say.

Sakura merely holds his stare, her eyes pointed and calculating. Finally, she loosens, one sun-baked shoulder lifting nonchalantly. 

“Actually, Neji was teaching me suiton jutsus.”

Itachi stills. 

With feigned indifference, Sakura plows right on. “My elemental affinities are earth and water, but I’ve always focused more on my doton techniques. And since Neji is also a water user, I asked him to teach me a few jutsus in exchange for me teaching his _girlfriend_ some basic healing techniques.”

He blinks once. Twice. Realizes how much he’s just fucked this up, and flees.

Quite literally, he gives her a hasty nod, gathers his chakra, and absolutely dissipates into thin air. 

Her call of, _“Hey Neji, I think ANBU is regrouping to a different spot now,”_ follows him all the way home.

\--------------

The first time Itachi ever confesses his feelings for a woman, he gets punched in the face.

He has been avoiding her for precisely eleven days, ten hours, and fourteen minutes. And in that time, he has come to recognize the odd streak of hope in his situation.

Although their last encounter had left him embarrassed and ashamed, it had also all but confirmed that Sakura is now aware of at least a small fraction of his feelings. Which means that half of the work is already done for him. 

Now, he only has to confirm her suspicions and officially present himself as a possible suitor. If all goes well, he may just have a shot at redeeming himself.

Itachi takes to the roofs dressed in his typical black pants and navy uchiwa shirt. The sun is beginning its gradual descent towards the horizon, and he hopes to catch her as she’s coming home from the hospital.

His heart pounds just under his skin, and Itachi wills his body to relax. 

Even during his brief romance with Izumi all those years ago, Izumi had been the one to approach him and inevitably confess her feelings. From there they had fallen into an easy, albeit immature, relationship.

At the time, he had not fully appreciated the nerve that it took for his childhood friend to confront him. Now, he understands the torturous feeling all too well.  
When he jumps from the roof onto her apartment floor, he already can tell that she is not home. Disappointed and more than a little anxious, he decides to sit and wait her out.

The minutes tick by, and the sky becomes more and more blue with the approaching sunset. While he considers himself to be a rather patient man, Itachi cannot help feeling frustrated with her delayed journey home. 

He is seconds away from simply taking off towards the hospital himself when a familiar voice calls to him.

“Nii-san.” 

Itachi squints down to the road beside the building. Sasuke looks up at him, dirt and sweat caking his clothes.

“She’s on Training Ground 3. We just got finished sparring.”

“Ah. Thank you, Sasuke.”

“She won’t be back home for awhile though, so you should just go to her.” He has an unusual, almost too-casual air about him as he says this, but Itachi hardly notices.

He nods, not bothering to ask how Sasuke knows that he is looking for her. He inhales a steadying breath, ignoring the abrupt quickening of his pulse, and shunshins towards the horizon.

The moment he touches the dirt ground, there’s a lightning fast blur and suddenly a gloved fist is colliding with his cheek. 

Itachi allows the momentum to push him towards the ground, deftly rolling back onto his feet. He works his jaw, glad to discover that the punch was merely a warning hit, and that the bruising will be minimal.

He hardly has time to catch his breath when a sandaled foot comes flying at his face.

“Shannaro!”

The spot he had been standing in mere milliseconds before is now cracked and crumbling.

He blinks in shock and the prepared speech that he has been practicing all day promptly evaporates into the recesses of his mind. 

This time, when the fists come flying, he’s ready. He shifts to the balls of his feet and evades, his loose clothes rippling in the wind as he moves.

Sakura is a fierce blur as she follows him across the training field, pink hair streaking behind her. Her determined eyes flash at him, mouth set in a firm line. Itachi’s dark brows furrow in confusion.

“Sakura—”

“Hold still, you asshole.” 

He hasn’t activated his Sharingan yet, but if she starts powering chakra into her hits, he knows that he’ll have to. 

As soon as the thought passes through his mind, she promptly rips a nearby tree out of the ground and swings. His eyes bleed red and the trunk slams into the log that he has substituted for his body. 

Wood chips explode upon impact and Sakura releases the tree so that it flings clear across the grounds. When it lands with a crash and finally rolls to a stop, she breathes harshly and looks up at Itachi, who’s taken up a spot on the defaced tree, split branches sprouting at all angles and partially obscuring him from view.

She glares unflinchingly into his hell-sent eyes, and he merely stares back in bemusement. The sky overhead has faded into a soft amber, the sun a short twenty minutes from disappearing beneath the distant mountains. 

Itachi eyes a bead of sweat as it slips over Sakura’s jaw, down the lean line of her neck, and into the dip of her collarbone. He swallows, inhales, and opens his mouth to speak.

“I have been looking for you, Sakura.”

“What the fuck is your problem?”

He blinks as her outburst supersedes his weak attempt at a conversation starter.

“Excuse me?”

Sakura exhales harshly through her nose and tugs on her leather gloves, taking slow, near-predatory steps towards him. “I said, what the fuck is your problem, _Uchiha_.”

Despite the butterflies and odd twinge of arousal he feels, Itachi frowns, disliking her aggressive approach.

“My problem? I am not the one who just blindly charged at an unsuspecting friend.”

She lets out a sharp bark of laughter, still advancing on his position. “Oh, ‘friends,’ is that what we are now?”

His feet shift on the rough bark of the tree, pants catching on an errant limb. He refuses to admit to his nervousness, even to himself.

“Because, last time I checked,” Sakura reaches the edge of the tree and snaps a branch as thick as his bicep out of her way, “friends don’t ignore each other for over a week after they’ve all but humiliated said friend by acting like some kind of jealous, possessive _keeper_.”

He winces but holds his ground. Well, maybe he shifts just the slightest bit backwards into the tree limb behind him, but he hopes she doesn’t notice.

“That is what I wanted to talk to you about, Sakura.”

She jumps onto the toppled tree, feet easily finding purchase on its broad trunk. “Oh, is it now?”

His own eyes glint challengingly, annoyance and frustration beginning to get the better of him. “Yes.”

They’re nearly nose-to-nose now—well, her nose to his chest.

“Then start talking.”

Unconsciously, he clenches his jaw, muscles jumping out with the tension. This is not how he wanted this to go. She was supposed to be teasing and he was supposed to be charming and they were supposed to end up together. He doesn’t want this to be the start of whatever they’re supposed to be. 

And it’s really not helping that the angry spark in her eye is kind of turning him on. 

Sakura lets out a low growl and the sound goes straight to his head in the worst (best) way possible. 

“You’re being awfully quiet for someone who claims that they just wanted to talk.”

It’s the last straw for his patience and his attraction. Itachi steps even closer, crimson eyes narrowed into an absolutely cutting glare. When he speaks, his voice is just barely above a smooth whisper.

“I wanted to talk, _Sakura_, because I wanted to apologize, and more importantly, tell you that _I am in love with you_. However, you wouldn’t stop _assaulting_ me long enough for me to get it out.”

It is silent for several agonizing moments, and his Sharingan takes in every inch of her scowling-irritated-beautiful face in achingly clear detail.

And finally, he sees a deeply satisfied look embed itself in her fairy green eyes. The edges of her lips curl into a smirk that nearly ruins him.

“Thank God. It took you long enough.”

When she surges up and shoves his back into the tree branch behind him, his breath hitches embarrassingly. And when she presses her lips to his, tongue sweeping along his lower lip, an odd ‘_hnnng_’ sound escapes him that vaguely makes him want to disappear into the bark beneath him. 

But instead, he raises one hand to cup her soft jawline and uses his other to spread across her lower back and yank her closer. 

She is all teasing nips while he is all sweet kisses, and yet somehow, they fit together perfectly.

Sakura pulls away first, and Itachi wants to groan at the lingering swipe of the tip of her tongue on his upper lip. 

She laughs, fingers catching in his now-unruly hair. “I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you genuinely frustrated.”

Itachi fits his palms on the swell of her hips. “You do possess the unique ability to always keep me on my toes.”

She winks at him, cotton candy lashes fluttering against her cheek. “Never let’em know your next move.”

He snorts and shoot her a wry look. “If I’d known you’d be this much trouble, I would have maintained a safe distance away from you.”

“You love it.”

She says it playfully, but Itachi only tilts his chin down and presses a slow, thorough kiss to her lips. When they separate again, she blinks dazedly up at him. His thumbs brush against the soft skin of her cheeks, and he presses his forehead to hers. 

“Yes, yes I do.”

\------------------------------

The first time Sakura tells him she loves him, Itachi asks his mother to prepare a wedding kimono with the Haruno and Uchiha clan symbols. 

She tells him that she already did.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing Naruto, so go easy on me lol. 
> 
> I honestly ship Sakura with literally everyone, but let me know what you think about Itasaku! For some reason, it's always just really intrigued me. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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